Stanley Cup viewer ratings drop in Canada, tops in U.S.

It was the top-rated show on American television on Saturday night but in Canada Game 5 of the Stanley Cup finals drew the fewest number of viewers of any game in the series.

NBC's broadcast of the Detroit Red Wings' 5-0 trouncing of the Pittsburgh Penguins was taken in by an average of 4.28 million people, down only slightly from its Game 1 telecast the previous Saturday night, though the small drop-off was expected because of the one-sided score.

CBC averaged 1.612 million viewers for Game 5, a significant drop from the 1.929 million who watched Game 4 on Thursday.

Last year's Game 5 between Pittsburgh and Detroit went into triple overtime and drew 2.708 million viewers on CBC.

The first four games of this year's Stanley Cup finals series on CBC all saw slight drops in viewership compared to last year.

CBC averaged 1.929 million viewers for Game 4 on Thursday, down from the 2.035 million average for Game 4 last season.